[Sca-cooks] "Child Safing"

[chawkswrth at aol.com]

Yes, it happened. It happened to my Great-Grandmother. Although she did not die, her legs were horribly scarred. 

What happened was that she was cooking at the Fireplace, a common place to cook in a Farmer's house, especially a poor farmer. The voluminous skirts of the era were mostly to blame. She had set out the coals to bake biscuits in her dutch oven. As she scooped more coals from the fire to put them on top, her skirts brushed the coals and flamed up. She ran out the house, (to keep from setting the house on fire). Her husband was coming in, with a bucket of water. He knocked her to the ground, and made her roll. He then doused her skirts with the water, and carried her back inside, while sending one of the workers for help. She was bedridden for months, while he cared for her. 
She was able to walk again, but she wore long, floor sweeping skirts until her death. 
They were married for 64 years...there are QUITE a few tales told about them in the family. <G>

BTW-it wasn't long before he had a stove put in the house. 

Helen


-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius <adamantius1 at verizon.net>

?
On a marginally related note, I remember always being mystified by the claims that such-and-such-a-child or woman in some historical setting died after "falling into the fire". But add things like corsets on the victims and thermal updrafts in a large fireplace, not to mention smoke and carbon monoxide, and it starts to seem like a more viable concept.?
?
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"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls, when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's bellies."?
? -- Rabbi Israel Salanter?
?
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